Introducing Patricia Magee

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As very close friends and colleagues for nearly 30 years, it gives us great pleasure to introduce Patricia Magee.  She was born in Bundaberg, Queensland and when seven and a half years old her Father, a World War Two veteran died, leaving his widow with two young children to raise.  The organisation, Legacy was born after the First World War to specifically support the families of Veterans who fought the war for freedom and gave their lives for peace. It is unnecessary to extol the many virtues of Legacy as you no doubt realise this very important organisation filled a massive void in the welfare arena in those days. Albeit to say that Legacy responded to the call for aid, from this family of a past veteran and hundreds possibly thousands of other families. This assistance has enabled them to maintain their self-esteem and progress successfully in life.

Patricia has had for many years, a great need to repay Legacy for the generosity they extended to her family. She was able to gain a sound education which enabled her to forge a distinguished career in nursing. She has become a very serious cyclist and considered that a marathon ride from Darwin to Bundaberg may generate enough interest and financial support to enable her to make a substantial contribution to Legacy.

As she turns 65 in mid 2012 she felt that would be a good time to commence this epic ride. She has gathered together a group of friends and colleagues; all of them are baby boomer retirees, as her support team and has determined that 25 August 2012 is to be the beginning of this adventure.

A little of Patricia’s history will show you she is not a slouch and that what she sets out to do she will ultimately achieve. Her curriculum vitae will show that right from her attendance at school she has been a high achiever when she won the Class Captain Award at High School. Her determination to achieve carried through to her working life, striving for the highest possible results from all her endeavours.  She trained as a nurse in Bundaberg and then went on to add to her qualifications at other hospitals in Australia and various parts of the world. She trained in Oxford where she specialized in Orthopaedics, eventually holding the position of Sister in Charge of the Royal Darwin Hospital Orthopaedics Ward, Spinal unit, when she returned home to Australia in 1977.

She gained her Bachelor of Nursing in 1995 and has since been presented two distinguished nursing awards one significantly following a nomination by her peers. She is currently working as a remote area nurse in the Top End of the Northern Territory where nursing is the most challenging of occupations.

After 47 years of nursing, 38 of them in the Northern Territory she is looking forward to this next challenge. With her support team this will be an adventure like nothing she has experienced before.  We believe that Patricia has all of the attributes and more, to be able to complete the challenging ride.

To complete the three thousand three hundred kilometre journey she will need to cover a nearly seventy kilometres each day. Not a lot if it is said quickly, however, it will be every day for forty eight days over some very inhospitable country, ranging from some steep climbs to wide open cattle station areas, where headwinds are almost guaranteed.

She reminded us the other day that with all the on-going world turmoil combined with Australia’s involvement in many of them, there will always be returned service personnel. We can show their families how much we appreciate the sacrifice their loved one made when guarding our freedom, by our financial support for Legacy, who will be with them, during their darkest hours.      

We as support team members are all counting down the days to 25 August when this grand trip begins and are confident that barring unforeseen impediments we will be arriving in Bundaberg in Queensland about the 10^th  October. We hope you will follow the highs and lows of her journey and contribute if only in a small way to this very noble organisation, as the majority of funding for Legacy comes from public donations.

Lest We Forget.
Posted by Leon and Jenny Pethick